Ubuntu 9.10 - aka Karmic Koala - is taking the fight to Microsoft and its new Windows 7 operating system.
The Koala - due for its official release today - brings faster boot times, a revamped software installer, better disk encryption, online services, and quite a bit more to the popular Linux desktop.
We took the release …

Shuttleworthian s^hcrap

AppArmor in Fedora?

"Ubuntu has included the AppArmor enhanced access control framework ever since the 7.10 release. However, Ubuntu has never surfaced or promoted AppArmor as much as other distros like Fedora. That continues with Karmic Koala where, for example, there's a new Firefox sandbox policy, but it's disabled by default."

Huh? Fedora doesn't use AppArmor. AA is most prominent in Ubuntu and OpenSUSE. Fedora uses SELinux.

yes, but is it all still brown?

Karmic Koala?

What is it with these guys and their insistence on alliteration. What's in store for the future Lunatic Llama, Monogamous Monkey... Wanky Whale? Jeez, pick a real name! What is it with the Linux fraternity and their stupid effing names for things?

Linux Aussie Haters?

"Given its stability, most Linux users tend to just leave the system running indefinitely..."

OK, so Linux users are major contributors to the global warming which will force Australians to flee their beach properties. QED, Linux users hate Australians. Oh, and since global warming will trash the Antartic sea ice, they will also wipe out their cute little bird mascot - the bastards!

Note for literalists: Yes, I know that global warming is a slightly contentious issue here, but the above is meant as a weak attempt at humour. Mind you, their electricity bills shouldn't be that funny. Still need an evil Penguin icon (and an evil Google one).

Faster boot times...

"But of course it's worth asking how often the average user actually boots up Ubuntu. Given its stability, most Linux users tend to just leave the system running indefinitely, making the faster boot time of dubious benefit."

Well I boot my Windows pc every day.

Oh yeah silly me, it's a laptop, but of course Linux laptop owners leave theirs powered up 24/7, even when on holiday.

Fast, stable, pissing on Kubuntu

Been using Karmic for donkeys, and yes - it is fast, reliable, and is another noticeable improvement over the previous version in terms of hardware support. However, the guys at Canonical, being GNOME fans, have started to piss in KDE users' cornflakes a little.

For a start, asoundconf is missing from alsa-utils, apparently because of some new (GNOME-based) tool that's coming in. So for those of us who like KDE, and whose bosses have forced them to change soundcard by accidentally destroying the old one, this causes more than a little annoyance, as we can't set the default soundcard any more - the utility in KDE only sets it for KDE-based apps, such as Amarok. Right now I've got sound in some apps and not in others. What would have been so bad about keeping the script around? I know it was removed from the standard alsa-utils package, but who cares?

Also, one or two GNOME apps won't start under KDE if you run the two alongside each other. Guess which ones. So if you want to install/modify apps in Kubuntu, you're stuck with KPackage, which really is a nasty interface.

Boot times...

agree that most ubuntu boxes don't get rebooted very often, but same applies to netbooks. I've got an AA1 (running their own Linux) and I fully reboot about once a month - usually I just shut the lid and it suspends. Open the lid and it's 30secs until I'm checking mail - and most of that time is waiting for the WiFi to connect. Fast boot is good, but probably not THAT important - main thing is will the boot times stay constant over time? unlike my old XP box that now takes 5+ mins 'cos there's so much junk on it!

"...most Linux users tend to just leave the system running indefinitely..."

Really? What planet do they live on, then? Presumably one where energy prices haven't been rising well over the rate of inflation for the last few years, and aren't likely to increase by 50% in the next few years.

Our home computers now get turned off when not in use. At work, this isn't feasible due to the half-hour-to-usable times we have to put up with on our crappy old machines, but as new fast-boot workstations start to come through, I shall be issuing instructions to turn them completely off at night.

Pidgin does have some video support

The front page at www.pidgin.im says '2.6.1 adds XMPP Voice and Video support (but not on Windows yet)'

OK, so that's limited protocol support, but it's still inaccurate to say it doesn't have any.

Then again, even though pidgin is my IM client of choice so far, I'd have to admit it needs a bit of work, especially on some of the interface and also the non multithreaded nature of the app. IRC support is still crap - even with some of the addons to improve things, and the initial IRC window hangs the entire pidgin app when loading on a slowish machine.

Pleateau d?

With Win 7 being little more than a service pack for XP, with some new eye-candy and incorporation of applications that used to only be available as freeware, this new version of Linux seems to be following a similar line. It looks to be a fairly minor tweak of the previous version - which was itself only slightly different from the preceding release - which was .....

While the developers tend to add some support for a few new devices, maybe the latest N-core processors and roll the applications to the next version number, it's still the same old Linux we've had for 5 or 10 years.

WHERE'S THE NEW STUFF?

Have we reached the point where this is pretty much all there is: some incremental improvements in boot times (to negate the huge amount of bloat?) different coloured GUIs and themes and another sickeningly cutesy name, designed to chip even further at Linux's credibility in the business world? Or is everyone just too scared of FAIL to experiment with dramatic new user interface paradigms.

How about slapping a bit of AI into the O/S and maybe something to help users search their por^H^H^Hvideo collections - a sort of SQL for pictures.

If Ubuntu/Linux/Gnome/KDE <whatever> really wanted to set itself apart from the other desktop systems, an interface that just asked the user "what do you want to do?" and took real-language inputs (written or spoken), rather than having to click a series of buttons to walk an application towards the result you want, would be so radical that it would almost certainly crash and burn. However, if it did succeed, it would leave the others in the dirt.

10 what?

Most users in general can leave their systems 'on' indefinitely

...ever hear of hibernating your machine?

For the person that mentioned wireless on Linux working "out of the box", I'd have to say that in my experience it always has, or with very little tinkering. I use a Windows driver on my Linux system with no problem. However, Windows 7 sees the wireless card but won't connect to anything. Known issue with my model of card. Seriously, if you have a computer, tinkering is going to be involved to some extent sometimes.

If you could liken progress in computing to the auto industry, we're only just beginning to move beyond the age of the Model-T.

Is it me? (probably is)

Looking at this, and all the goodies that Ubuntu have done for this release, new things, actual development things. Better file systems, encryption, boot times, cleaning up and making menus easier to read.

Then compare actual new and development things that Win7 has brought. That come as standard (not a download) Pay extra for bitlocker, control panel is even more reliant on menus and sub menus, boot time is still no better than XP and half the "new options" were in vista or copied from Linux. Same rubbish indexing, chewing resources. Only the task bar is "new". (And not that great to be honest)

And it's all free. No MS tax, no odd exchange rates for pricing, no lock ins, no anti virus scans daily. No WGA. (The biggest benefit I can see)

@AC 08:08

@ratsac11

"You can actually connect to the internet wirelessly, out of the box, or with either the drivers that come with it or those that come with most wireless adapters."

Try Linpus as default installed on the Aspire One Netbook.

Took me mere minutes to setup Wireless ADSL connections for the Net and the office Network.

Why minutes? I type a bit slow and my Wifi router encryption key is a tad long.. And it works fine.. seamlessly. Every time. Even reset at startup to the last Wifi connection I had running at shutdown. I also have fixed line configs in Network Manager for my home LAN, office LAN and when hooked via copper to my DSL router. Switching between networks is as simple as a mouse click.

I have tried Ubuntu Remix (USB boot stick same netbook). IT SUCKS AT NETWORKING. Which comes as no surprise as I have yet to see (with the exception of Linpus), an easy to use and working Linux GUI net tool that pops up on the system tray and actually works.

That said, Ubuntu Remix's web cam and games s/w are loads better that those included with Linpus. But that is minor ito networking .. that's simply working. Out of the box. First time. Every time. The reason why I'm staying with Linpus on my netbook and not using Remix.

Mark and the boys can learn (and should borrow) from how well Linpus does it.. and how easy Linpus makes it.

Why the excitement

This is the bit I wanted to hear...

"Ubuntu also plans to offer commercial software through Software Center..."

What Linux has failed to offer so far is premium software. Adobe's CSx suite is a prime example. One of Ubuntu's core aims is to promote free software, but I firmly believe that they must open the doors to closed-source to encourage mainstream acceptance.

If they can get MS Office and iTunes available through their app store, they'll be the dominant OS.

@JP Strauss

Seeing something awesome from good ol' SA?

Then you only need to look at our Julius Melama. A more awesome example of a giant asshole you won't find anywhere else on this planet. Even that magnificent example of asshole-hood, George W. Bush, fades to a tiny little balloon knot in comparison.

@Pete 2 - A little unfair, mate

"With Win 7 being little more than a service pack for XP, with some new eye-candy and incorporation of applications that used to only be available as freeware, this new version of Linux seems to be following a similar line. It looks to be a fairly minor tweak of the previous version - which was itself only slightly different from the preceding release - which was ....."

Windows releases come out every 5 years or so (or every 18 months if you fuck one up and desperately need to re-release it). Ubuntu comes out every 6 months - it's designed to be a series of incremental steps.

Netbooks

I hope they manage to sort out some instructions for installing the UNR from a flash drive - now that they have done away with .img files in favour of .iso (seems a little retarded for UNR - seeing as how they don't have CD drives).

One good thing about 8 bit computers

At least with the Amstrads and the Spectrums, you did not have to wait to start up the machine :-) You could start using it immediately. When you had software like Protext on the CPC on ROM, you had a word processor immediately :-)

@ratsac11

You mean Wifi drivers like any Intel ones? I've run Ubuntu on Thinkpads and I'm currently running it on Medion S5610 and the wireless just worked out of the box. The only typing I had to do was to enter my WPA2 key. That was the case on the Toshiba I had as well, it just worked- a Tosh which dual booted into Vista where the wireless card would work once and then lock you out claiming that the wireless hub hadn't responded in a "timely manner". There was NO fix for that so it was bye bye Vista.

Video card on the Medion is a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400. Ubuntu found it and offered to download and activate the closed source drivers from ATI.

So no command line there....

My wife's XP laptop has suddenly decided NOT to allow her to upgrade iTunes.

The fix?

1. On the Start menu, click Run.

2. In the "Open" field dialog box, enter the following command and click OK:

regsvr32 vbscript.dll

3. A message should appear stating that the "DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded."

4. Click OK and try installing iTunes or QuickTime again.

So apparently its OK to expect people to use the command line on Windows, but when it comes to Linux its wrong and shows how old fashioned and user unfriendly it is.

It's that time again

After the RC install totally hosed a laptop, I backed-up the home folder (yes, I should have done that first...but there was nothing essential on this laptop; just stuff that would have taken a while to copy over/install. Anyway, the fact I could still do this on a hosed system shows how resilient the underlying architecture of Linux is) and will be hitting it with a full, ext4 release install. It's an old lappy and it'll be interesting to see how it behaves.

I'm curious about UbuntuOne, but I don't get the whole cloud thing to be honest. It smacks of the whole fat-server/thin-client ethos of yesteryear. And unless UbuntuOne can *do* something for me...how is it any better to an FTP site and some local scripts? Still, everyone seems to have a hard-on for "cloud" these days...so a bit of dicking around is probably a good thing.

The encryptions is interesting. I am a fan of TrueCrypt, but if the baked-in encryption allows me to move files about (encrypted) and then de-crypt them in a more seamless way, then that should be good. I wonder if there is a Windows app for working with the encrypted folders?

Oh yeah, Windows. I'm going to have to fight with Samba again. Oh god. To be fair, I think there is something up with my home Windows network, but Samba is a total ARSE to get going and set-up so it works seamlessly with Windows (then again, I don't have a lot of spare time).

At least on the lappy I'll be able to test the multi-screen support. I wonder if that is still totally bollocks? If there are three things that are light-years ahead on Windows, it's multi-screen support*, RDP and printer support (although the last is not the fault of the Linux community).

Still, I've been really happy with 9.04 on various systems and whilst there are still usability issues with Linux when compared to Windows (some are simply the fact that Windows is familiar, others are Linux still being geek-centric), Linux is rapidly becoming a viable contender in niche areas (small PCs, netbooks).

Will Karmic make an impact on Win7? No. Not to the average consumer anyway. Perhaps on the back-end, but almost all new desktop PCs will still come with Win7 and what Linux kit you can buy will be lower-spec'd crap when compared to the Win7 stuff. Unless the Linux-distros can find a way to break MS's restrictions on the supply chain, I seriously doubt they will ever hit consumer mainstream.

*Yes, I know it can be done on a Linux distro, but it sucks. You cannot guarantee that you can control which desktop is primary (random driver issues), and you have the whole "square" virtual desktop thing to contend with which can also be an arse (one desktop left scrolling). Oh yeah, and you need to manually install xrandr and hack scripts to have a hope of getting anything even half working. That's been my experience any way. On Windows...Desktop Properties/Settings/a few clicks/job done. Linux distros *MUST* make it that easy. End of gripe.

@sandman

'leave them running indefinitely' isn't really clear.

When you leave an Ubuntu machine is goes to sleep and uses barely no electricity. For me, I just shut the lid when finishing and the laptop suspends to disk - then when starting work I just open the lid, enter password and carry on from where I left off.

You're probably only used to Windows poor way of trying to do the same - for modern OS's things are much better - after all the guys who can write such a brilliant OS can also sort out sleeping and suspending properly.

This is why the boot times aren't that important - I hardly ever reboot. And I don't think my wife has rebooted her Mac in months!

faster boot times

>Given its stability, most Linux users tend to just leave the system running indefinitely, making the faster boot time of dubious benefit.

This maybe true, but seems to inply Windows users turn their pc off because Windows needs it, which I think is false. I think most windows users turn their pc's off because they have finished using it and there is no reason to leave it running! If home users started using Linux mainstream I doubt this behaviour would change.

I turn my pc off at night not because Windows is in some way less stable than Linux, but because:

a) it's in my bedroom and I can't sleep with the flashing leds and fan noise!

b) it's a waste of power

and c) it's not nessesary

Linux wont change any of those reasons except possibly point c: my old ubuntu box takes about a fucking month to boot up - if Linux is to go mainstream this is one thing they really need to address, so I have to disagree with your assertion that this is of dubious benefit, as this is clearly the market Shuttlecock are aiming for.

@sandman

If fact, it's the millions and millions of PC's servers running bloated Windows OS which is part of the problem of excessive energy consumption. Most Windows PC's seem to be running at full pelt just to be on and doing nothing. This has been pointed out about MS so often in the past.

Modern OS's are part of the solution - so I would suggest that Australians start shifting over asap and get everyone else to do the same!

@ratsac11 - nVidia hardware

"Linux will only win when.... Other exotic hardware (like, um Nvidia video cards) works out of the box."

nVidia refuse to release details of how to talk to their hardware. How are you supposed to develop a driver for it? The OpenBSD people have been trying for years to get info from nVidia without any success.

It's an utterly stupid attitude from a hardware manufacturer - "we would like to sell you our hardware but we're not going to tell you how to use it".

Awesomeness

will it work with Microsoft ACPI ?

"Foxconn .. have several different tables, a group for Windws XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX"

The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems"

'You are incorrect in that the motherboard is not ACPI complaint. If it were not, then it would not have received Microsoft Certification for WHQL', Foxconn

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249

--

'One thing I find myself wondering about is whether we shouldn’t try and make the “ACPI” extensions somehow Windows specific', billg Jan 1999

Have they fixed/replace the attrocious network manager?

After playing with Ubuntu in its last incarnation that's the best question I can ask.

Crazily it worked fine in the live-CD mode, but once installed it relied on "Network Manager" which ought to be called "Notwork Manager" instead of the old linux (unix like) configuration files. Nothing could get it on our network without disabling this atrocious tool and using the old style configuration.

Oh - and the design of the manager is so poor that it ignores the standard configuration files - and it does not even comment them out or add a comment to explain why they will be ignored - before not working. I thought perhaps we'd done something odd, but no there were loads of complaints about the shoddyness of NM in the support forums. For the last 2 or 3 releases! Who does that remind me of. Apparently there is a much better tool but its ignored for not being Gnomic enough....

They wanted to call it Loathsome Longhorn...

Ubuntu One?

"Sadly, in our limited testing the Ubuntu One site continually timed out and threw proxy errors so we never able to login and sync our files. If nothing else, we take that as a sign that the service is popular with Ubuntu users."

If you replaced "Ubuntu" with "Microsoft" it would read like this:

Sadly, in our limited testing the MicrosoftOne site continually timed out and threw proxy errors so we never able to login and sync our files. If nothing else, we take that as a sign that the service is COMPLETE AND UTTER BOLLOCKS, AND MS CAN'T CODE THEIR WAY OUT OF A PAPER BAG!!

Really, why can't you just tell us Ubuntu One isn't working, or do a little actual investigating to find out why it isn't working, instead of MAKING THINGS UP?

It's today now - so where is it?

author- please read your article before publishing..

You talk about newbie users who will love the new app store... then say that most linux people dont reboot and within a couple of paragraphs are telling us about encrypting our laptops.

Sounds to me like you have an idea of what a linux user is (a stereotype maybe) and then talk about the new users coming in their droves from windows, only to change again by talking about linux on laptops.

Perhaps, just perhaps linux is very versatile and there is not so much as a linux stereo type anymore?

Nice work, Canonical!

Ubuntu Netbook Remix installed with no hassles and works very nicely on a brand new ASUS 1005HA for the mother-in-law. Much faster, and easier to use than the Win 7 netbook I test-drove. Amazon even refunded me $58 for the pre-installed copy of Windows whose EULA I rejected. If Win 7 is the best that Microsoft can come up with, I'm going to stick with my OSX and Linux boxes.

@ Have they fixed/replace the attrocious network manager?

Notwork Manager is shite isn't it? Whoever writes it seems to be on a crusade against automatic logon - if you do that, NM then pesters you for the default keyring password, somewhat defeating the object (I've seen Evolution do this too).

Ubuntu now have the simpler and superior wicd in the repositories, just type wicd into Add/Remove Applications and Bob will soon be your uncle.

What Time?

@ratsac11

-(most importantly for newbies) you can change settings without having to type stuff into terminal. This is how most help advice comes as of writing

You're right, the terminal is the most important feature for newbies. I don't know what I would do without it. Quite frankly the terminal is the best newbie tool ever concieved of. Here's why... When something breaks on Windows, have you ever looked on the internet for a solution? Or tried to walk someone through how to fix it? It goes like this: "Open the start menu, click run, no, R-U-N... yeah... now type in regedit.. click on that little boxy thing beside _MASSIVLY LONG KEY NAME_... click plus, plus, plus, pus... find the thing that say X... no, the other thing that says X... change it to Y... Make sure you change the right thing to the right thing otherwise your computer won't boot... Then close... now open control panel... find Z.... blah blah blah... and reboot.." It doesn't work? Did you miss something?

On Linux:. Type the problem you are having in to Google.... First hit is usually your answer: Open up terminal, and copy and paste "xxxxxxx" into it. There, fixed in one step with no chance for error... And you didn't even have to re-boot.

@ @ It's today now - so where is it?

Quit yer moaning

Reading some (if not most) of the comments you would think that hoardes of disgruntled Ubuntu users were right now at the customer service desk of PC World demanding there money back.

Sure Ubuntu does lack the polish of Vista/ Win7, however bearing in mind it is completely FREE and almost a direct replacement for WinXP it is not difficult to see why so many pro M$ sponsered bloggers are doing thier damdest to keep it hiddem from greater public awareness.

If Shuttleworth and friends really want to sink thier collective fangs, then put faster boot times on the back burner and do something about 'Sideways' compatibility to make Ubuntu more friendly towards using non-linux drivers and software.

Hold your breath and wait

It seems I am the only one having the problems. I upgraded from Jaunty, so this may be the culprit. My main gripes are:

1. Boot time. To GDM it is really fast. Then it is a slugfest. 20 something seconds for GDM login prompt to appear, and whopping 50 seconds for usable desktop. My laptop has T7200 Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB of RAM, so clearly something is not right.

2. Empathy and notification area. Every review just mentions that Empathy is default. Since I use it since 8.10 I thought no problems. No luck. Before Empathy was happily sitting in the notification area. No more. Now to see whether you are online, you have to add to the panel the sesion indicator applet. To be notified of the messages you have to add indicator applet. The first applet displays your full login name and the status icon is non-colored. So instead of one unobtrusive icon to see your status and to open empathy window, now I have two applets which take up my precious panel space, and I have to click a smorgasboard of applets and whatnot to open the empathy window. A huge usability no-no from my point of view. And god forbid if you did not notice that you have a message. The panel will not indicate this now. Go to indicator applet, press it, and may be you will be lucky.

3. The password box. For some reason whenever I have to enter password anywhere, I have to use magnifying glass to see password signs. I checked all obvious places, all fonts are in order, dpi is reported correctly, so I must draw a conclusion that this was a design choice. Why display anything at all then?

So there. If you upgrade from Jaunty beware. You may have a rough ride. I made my mistake by trying too soon. Wait the usual month. And probably do a clean install. I for one will certainly do one, since ext4 seems worth it.

Wireless and NVidia

Well, my desktop Ubuntu wireless (using a USB stick) worked first time and stays working. The other half's Vista PC with the same USB wireless stick has only just started working properly when sp2 was released. To be honest, I'm still not sure it completely right.

Nvidia has been a PITA though. Ubtuntu did work out of the box, then I upgraded to the Nvidia driver to get acceleration, but every kernel upgrade now breaks X so I have to reinstall the driver. Think its because my graphics card is about 5 years old, if not more. But still a PITA, although the blame I think lies with Nvidia, not Linux/Ubuntu.

Re: Quit yer moaning

While I have to agree that Karmic Koala lacks the polish of Win 7 or Snow Leopard, there's really no comparison between it and the (clunky, ancient) XP. Frankly, the "free" aspect had little to do with installing UNR on this new netbook (my other machines are Mac$), but a lot to do with the fact that it's quicker, more stable, and easier to use than Win 7. (Getting a "Windows tax" refund from Amazon was just icing on an already tasty cake.)

polish?

jon72 said "Sure Ubuntu does lack the polish of Vista/ Win7".

True, Windows is polished, but don't forget underneath the polish is a whole lot of rust...

Am looking forward to this release - my boss has just asked me to purge Vista from her home laptop as she's fed up of wating 10 minutes of startup just to check her emails (not sure she knows about suspend etc and who knows if it would work) - this looks to be the most user-friendly Ubuntu yet, so I'll try and it see if it's ready from the off, or whether I need to stick to 9.04 for a couple of months.

For my own (main) machines I prefer to use the LTS (cos I can't be bothered constantly upgrading) but this looks to be a good step towards 10.04 which should be a real killer.

@James Hughes 1

I'm not promoting one distro over another, however, in openSUSE this problem is automatically solved in YaST update (add nvidia repository) If it's yet not in Karmic Koala, then Lanky Llama or Musty Mongoose will have it as standard, I'm sure.

May I ask...

... if "The goal is to eventually replace Synaptic, gdebi, some parts of the Computer Janitor, and possibly the Update Manager as well, with the all-in-one Software Center." why not just use Open SuSE's YAST? 'Cause that's what YAST is, the functional equivalent of "Control Panel" in Windows. Maybe it's even more than that, but I might be biased because I use Windows only when forced or to make money...

By the way, where is yast4deb project at? And where is Novell with their effort to separate the UI in YAST from the back-end scripts?

YAST is also one of the easiest tools to be accepted by a Windows sysadmin...

slow internet bug should never have shipped

To anybody that is not comfortable with text editors and the command line I would recommend holding off on upgrading to 9.10 for at least a few weeks. There is an almost show stopper issue with ipv6 (ip6 sucks balls everyone moving to nat instead, ipv6 on the blacklist ftw) dns resolution on many computers that really slows down your internet connection to almost dial up speeds. The issue is documented at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/417757 . Note that I was able to resolve it on my netbook but following the advise posted in post #30. Still for notebooks a few quibbles (took away the shutdown and logoff areas on desktop and the above issue) but all in all is snappier and pretty slick.

@ "Wanky Whale"

ITS UGLY!!!!

Back in the windows 95 days they looked like crap compared to win 95. However, in recent years, I would say they have caught up with win 95, but certainly not 98.

This is one MAJOR reason to not switch to Ubuntu or Linux. Sure it's stable, sure it's reliable, but if Apple can do it, the rest of you linux developers can get off your butts and make something look good too.

@steogede Netbooks

Very easy: use Unetbootin. Have you even tried to read the UNR installation instructions at all? It's all there, and runs on Windows or Linux.

It gets any ISO from any distro (it will download it for you, if it's available in the program's menu, or you can use your own) and makes a bootable USB drive from any 1GB key. Has worked well for me since 9.04, I think.

@anti-brown whiners

What are you talking about, brown? My Ubuntu installations do not look brown at all.

OK, I don't like the default color scheme that much either, but what do you whiners think you are running, an Apple OS? :-P

For good or for evil, you can change all that in any Linux distro with a few clicks of the mouse. About 2.5 minutes after installation, my panels are semi-transparent, the colors are a mix of blue and gray, and the desktop picture is one of my sky photos. Looks *very* different from the screen shots in the article. It will only look brown if you want it to look brown, lazy arses.

huh!

Re: slow internet bug should never have shipped

My comment was not clear but the bug especially affects you if your ISP can not do ipv6 dns resolves (as most in the US cant). That is those who don't run ipv6 at all because frankly it sucks will encounter the most problems with this bug. <rant> WTF the ip6 crowd can bite my nuts I am tired of it being a security risk (if not careful and disable by default can be wide open to anyone) and am mad it is such a pain to get rid of in linux. Such a fail technology and the linux devs should not have made it so insidious to force us to have to jump through hoops to get rid of it and finally it should never ever affect ipv4 speeds. I absolutely adore 9.10 on my Samsung NC10 but all these nagging little issues don't speak highly of Ubuntu QA process and will reflect badly against the much more polished but ultimately still a turd that is windows 7 </rant>.

Yep and that attitude is exactly why windows will probably end up owning the netbooks just like it does the desktop which is a damn shame. 9.10 is incredibly snappy and perfect for netbooks if you are tech enough to get fix the flaws out of the box that should never have shipped. The problem is %90 of the general public is not and due to the lack a tiny bit of polish it becomes a showstopper, they can't be bothered and win7 wins. Oh well I don't care either way but facts are facts.

trolls need to shut up

If you don't like Ubuntu, don't use it and shut up. If you don't like Linux, don't use it and shut up. What's so difficult to understand about that?

I see no reason to bash other peoples' work, especially if you're not so familiar with it and aren't even prepared to try it, and especially if they're giving it to you for free.

Seriously, if you like Windows or Mac so much, just mind your own business and shut up. Only when you have given Linux the chance that it deserves should you come here and preach about it not being good. Bloody trolls.

@ Anonymous Coward

So your idea of a workable system is to meld two operating system into one and thereby create a single unit that "just works"?

Interesting concept, but outside of the techy/guru/fanboy arena, who in the general population of desktop computer users do you think would be astute enough to even know to do that much less actually attempt it. You know, those who spend most of the money that's spent on computers. A rhetorical question, but I'm sure your get the smell of what I'm stepping in.

Why are there so many "No" responses in the "Works out of the box" column? For that, matter why does this data set even need to exist? Yeah, yeah I know Windows has similar lists and I have the same questions there too. Hype is hype regardless of it geographical location.

My point is, the common everyday garden variety non techy desktop user who goes to Best Buy wants to be able to do the things they want to do, to do the things they have always done, and in all likelihood stick to only those things in the future.

I can make all Ubuntu versions work. I can make all versions of Windows work. But the looks on people's faces when I tell them my skills are really the minimum for all computer users are simply hilarious. People want their computer to be like their automobile: start it up and go to the store/movie/where ever. What they don't want to have to do is call a cranking expert to get it going or to have to install BMW parts oi their Volvo to be able to get the radio to work.

@Anonymous Coward

Linux is failing in its "battle" with Microsoft for desktop dominance because of one thing: an absolute lack of organization and no common goal. If all the Linux gurus were to get together, agree on a unified future course of action and put that plan into action, Microsoft would wither and die. And that death would take place a whole lot faster than we'd all believe.

The Linux community has basically all the programming talent and the innovative thought processes that would make a joint effort utterly unstoppable. Microsoft has no real talent, they use the shotgun approach: just blow something out there all over the place. Generally, uptake will be sufficient to keep them in busines.

Microsoft is laying people off and stopping numerous projects because they are in financial straits. If Windows 7 fails, Microsoft fails. But the Linux community has sat with their thumbs up their collective butts and done nothing as a coherent group. If a Linux consortium ever had the chance to trounce Microsoft, it was during the vacuum after Vista's release but before 7's release. A golden opportunity was missed because the various Linux boys can't get it together. And the sad part is, that sort of opportunity is not likely to happen again.

Linux guys are all good guys. And I mean that sincerely. They are of a general mindset to produce a quality product that works well, is fairly priced, and serves the needs of all desktop computers users. They truly are public servants with a desire to help. Microsoft is not like that. They may say they are but in the final analysis they exist NOT to build a better OS. They exist to 1.) Grow the company. 2.) Increase the bottom line, and 3.) Increase stock holder wealth. That's what all corporations do and if they need to be cutthroat at it they will be. In that regard, reference all their legal woes. The Linux community as a whole, lacks the killer instinct and will never best any corporation who has that instinct in spades. Unless they truly organize.

One fire ant bite is an annoyance. Two is a pain in the ass. But you get a whole colony of the little buggers on you and you can die. But then, fire ants can communicate and act in unison; they can get organized and they can kill you. The Linux community needs to take a lesson from fire ants and all start stinging at the same time.

A huge disappointment

A lot of things got changed here that didn't need changing. Audio problems are omnipresent, the perfectly acceptable Pidgin messenger has been replaced with Empathy. A wealth of X server issues have cropped up, causing black screens with hard to trace causes. Proprietary driver activation has become buggy, and program crashes are routine instead of rare.

All in all, a very underwhelming release. You can do better, Canonical.

Happy as Larry with Karmic

I upgraded my laptop (5 year old ThinkPad T42) and my Eee PC to Karmic as soon as it was out and I absolutely love it. Everything works out of the box and is extremely stable. The look and feel is a bit more polished, the new Ubuntu Software Centre looks good and easier to use for newbies, most preferences dialogues are more intuitive and more polished (the sound preferences in particular). Nothing revolutionary but everything a bit better, which is exactly what you would expect considering that 10.04 (aka Lucid Lynx) is meant to be an LTS: I'm happy to wait for 10.10 to see the revolutionary stuff if it means the next LTS is rock solid.

And considering I upgraded the laptop's HDD to an SSD in the process, that machine is now blisteringly fast: I've never seen Eclipse start that quickly. If you want to give a second lease of life to an ageing machine, that's the way to go: swap the HDD for an SSD and install a good Linux distribution on top. Yes, £130 sounds like a lot of dosh for a 64GB hard disk but it's a lot less costly than buying a whole new computer.

Oh and for all of you who don't like the brown theme, go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance and tweak to your heart's content. It's probably the same people who complained about the teletubbies look when XP first appeared. As for me, I'll keep the brown theme because it's quite easy on the eye which is good when working on the computer all day long.

simply, F A N T A S T I C!

I have tried over many years a number of distros, let me tell you, this is the easiest linux to date! Unbelievable achievement, I even uninstalled Windows 7 (waaaay too Vista-y for me) and use this marvel of a distro. Congrats to all people involved, this brilliant! Give it a go.

I'm just a stupid user, but...

I’ve been a happy Ubuntu user for a few years now, loading it up on an ancient 13” IBM laptop which would creak under the weight of XP. It works beautifully with Ubuntu and is a better option than a cramped netbook for my needs. Having just upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 from 9.04, I have to say that I’m a little underwhelmed. By no means is 9.10 a bad release, but 9.04 seemed to boot faster (without the fanfare that 9.10 is getting). Using my 3 mobile broadband stick, 9.04 would jump onto the network quicker than 9.10. I’m wondering whether Ubuntu’s getting bloated rather than leaner?

To balance it out, I also installed Win7 onto my desktop. It’s no better than Vista that preceded it. Really.

I’m not qualified to talk about code or components. I’m just an advanced, albeit stupid user. I can make my PC and laptop do what I want them to do through use of the tools on them. Neither of the new OSs have impressed. But only one of them cost me any money.

Disappointed

First I tried the update servers, but on seeing that my download would take 1 day, 23 hours or so I downloaded the ISO image instead (23 minutes). It installed ok, but I didn't get too far with it after that because it shipped with a beta version of Grub that doesn't work. Grub will boot whatever is on its top line, but if you move the cursor off that line it hangs forever. I was much more concerned that it didn't trash my XP partition than that 9.10 worked, so I manually edited the grub.inf file to put XP at the top, breathed a huge sigh of relief when XP booted, and decided to do without Ubuntu until the next service pack.

For the short time I had 9.10 up and running, I did find one major annoyance. I could not set the clock to the right time. The PC clock was right when I started the install but somewhere in the procedure it got set to some other time, 14 hours behind my local, and it would not be reset. Well I could try, but about 2 seconds after I finished it reverted again.

I do have huge respect for Shuttleworth and his merry band of freetards for finally making a user friendly distro. But their ability to make a commercial ready distro is nill. Their own company mission statement just parrots Stallman's 'freedoms'. Try Mint Linux or Elive if you want Ubuntu/Debian compatible distros that are not pig slow.

Windows 7 has nothing to worry about.

Every 9 months I have a ritual. One by one, I install the latest Ubuntu on my 7 PCs and laptops, and set them up the way I like them.

Same thing last week, when the new Ubuntu appeared. Now, nearly a week later, all but one have had the *previous* version reinstalled.

Karmic Koala boots much more slowly than Feisty. The login screen is ugly as sin (unlike Feisty's classy, professional-looking screen. The list of features that now don't work across my range of machines is stunning. The desktop experience has been dumbed down to a point where it feels almost as 'nanny' as Windows.

If THIS is the Ubuntu that Shuttleworth thinks can go head-to-head with windows, I predict an EPIC fail.

Stupid user comments on Linux Mint love-in and alliteration

I'm not about to be rude about Linux Mint, but "professional" and "better" are a little OTT. And considering Mint is based on Ubuntu 9.04, it's not worth bashing Ubuntu. Without Ubuntu, there is no Mint.

Is alliterative naming such a burden to bare? What's so great about Apple's or MS' naming? Don't you prefer the name Jenson Interceptor to Citroen 2CV, for example?

Anyway, while 9.10 seems a low-point for Ubuntu, I'm more than happy that I can revert to 9.04 and do what I want... or switch to Linux Mint... better luck next time, Ubuntu. At least your failures are not at the expense of the rest of us, though.

Mark Shuttleworth's Vista moment

If I wasn't such a reasonable bloke I could be a Linux fanboy, and I really like Ubuntu. I've an old P4 box running an SiS chipset that runs Ubuntu 9.10 and Mythbuntu 9.10 superbly. There are so many improvements, particularly from the Myth team.

Unfortunately my laptop and my main desktop (both Dells) are based on Intel chip-sets with integrated video, and on those 9.10 is unusable. There are fanbois in denial about the disaster, but the issues are repeatable on fresh clean installs on bog-standard hardware on multiple Intel chipset platforms.

Canonical obviously can't have done even elementary testing. Maybe they think Intel video is a niche market. At a time when MS is getting its OS act together, Canonical needed to be on the ball - but instead they have dropped the ball. It's so bad it's embarrassing. How could you do this, Canonical?

Very nice

The Karmic Koala is nice, not without its issues, Intel chipsets amongst others. But Ubuntu 9.10 has not made any steps towards resolving the real Linux issue, which is not really a Linus issue. There are not enough workplace ready apps for Linux. Developers make money in the M$ platform and are not porting to Linux. What a shame.

Also, unless apps are installed from the repository, not all install properly, without tinkering and googling. Get all teh Linux flavours to standardise on file location and a single installer. That would go a very long way to eatup M$ market...

As for working out of the box...

...I have just had an experience. Old box threw a wobbler and killed a disk dead, dead, dead. Sad, sad, sad. Doing it while backing up said disk and thereby scrunching the backup set too is just icing on the cake - plenty of backup survived and I could rebuild the machine in a day or so, I figured. New box arrived, destined for Windows-XP-hood. But guess what - XP Pro didn't recognize the NIC on the motherboard. No amount of badgering made it understand that yes, there's a NIC down there and it's perfectly capable of contacting the router for an IP address. Ubuntu did it right the first time. And everything else in the machine too. XP never quite got the hang of the old box either, with several pieces of hardware sporting yellow question marks in the device manager and no relief to be found anywhere. Not that I was missing anything (I'm not into gadgets so I'll survive not having a card reader, teevee card etc.), it was just a bit weird.

Now I know I've taken a few shots at Linux in the past for being not quite good enough, but even I have to admit that Ubuntu's nearly there. A few issues (mainly with off-mainstream software like VMWare Server (which sux - now using Sun VirtualBox instead, great little tool)) notwithstanding, it's doing a marvellous job. Now if just IBM could manage to get out Domino Designer and Admin clients for Linux I'd be happy never to see a Windows box again.

Ubuntu One is pants though. Overpriced and underperforming. Where's the ability to link in backup software, for example? And it's not as if the incentive isn't there, 2 Gb is going to disappear in a flash once backups start rolling in and people will then probably be happy to dump a load of money on the service. Try again. Please. It's a good idea, just do it right next time around.